86441038 prosperity-of-the-soul-jerry-savelle

Prosperity of the Soul
by
Jerry Savelle
HARRISON HOUSE
P.O. Box 35035
Tulsa, Okla. 74135

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations in this
volume are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations are from the Amplified New Testament,
© The Lockman Foundation 1954, 1958 and are used by
permission.
ISBN 0-89274-135-4
Printed in the United States of America
Copyright © 1979 by Jerry Savelle
All Rights Reserved

Contents
Chapter 1
A Citizen of the Kingdom.................................................7
Chapter 2
Jesus Paid the Same Price for It All.............................15
Chapter 3
Become Established in the Word...................................19
Chapter 4
The Root of All Evil........................................................25
Chapter 5
A Closer Look at Man....................................................37
Chapter 6
True Prosperity..............................................................45
Chapter 7
The Principle of Giving and Receiving..........................51
Chapter 8
Walking in Truth............................................................57
Chapter 9
Walking in Truth Is Your Responsibility......................63
Chapter 10
Learn to Act, Talk, and Think Like God.......................69
Chapter 11
The Key...........................................................................73
Chapter 12

Adam, the Image of God................................................79
Chapter 13
Adam Had Two Sources of Knowledge..........................83
Chapter 14
God's Covenant With Man.............................................87
Chapter 15
Some Prosperous Souls..................................................91

1
1 A Citizen of the Kingdom
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou
mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy
soul prospereth. I have no greater joy than to
hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved,
follow not that which is evil, but that which is
good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that
doeth evil hath not seen God.
3 John 2,4,11
To whom is John speaking when the Spirit of God
prompts him to say “Beloved”? Are you one of the
beloved? If you are, can you, as an individual, have
prosperity? Before you begin the study of prosperity you
need to become totally established in the fact that
prosperity is the will of God. Prosperity is for you;
however, there are conditions that you have to meet.
Verse 2 in the above Scripture passage says,
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest
prosper and be in health, even as thy soul prospereth.”
My Bible cross reference put it this way: “Beloved, I
pray, or I desire above all things that thou mayest
prosper ....” The “thou" that He is talking to is the
beloved. Whoever the beloved is that he was talking to
in that epistle stands good, firm, and true anywhere the
word “beloved” is found in the Word of God.
If you are a Christian, you are one of the beloved.
And if you are not one of the beloved, Jesus made it easy
for you to become one. Just do what Paul tells you to do
in Romans 10:9 and you will become one of the beloved.
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That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved.
John is talking to the beloved, and he is saying,
“Beloved, I desire above all things ...." ALL THINGS:
not some things; not many things, but all things. “I
desire—I pray above all things. Evidently, this has
priority with God. And if it has priority with Him it has
priority with me.
Somebody said, “Well, He is only talking about
spiritual prosperity. God doesn’t want us to have
anything that isn’t spiritual.”
If you say that, you haven’t read your Bible very
thoroughly! The Bible says that God has already
blessed us with all spiritual blessings, and made us to
sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (See
Ephesians 1:3, 20; 2:6; 3:10). However, He has not only
blessed us with spiritual things, but the Apostle Peter
said that He has obtained for us all things that pertain
to LIFE AND GODLINESS. God wants us to be blessed
in every area of our lives.
When I Became One of the Beloved
I was raised in a denominational church, and I went
to church every Sunday. But I heard very little that was
preached. I am not proud of my actions, but after I did
receive the Lord, I was glad that I didn’t have a lot of
religious tradition to unlearn. I had the idea that God’s
Word was a story book—beautiful stories about what
happened to men a long time ago. I had no earthly idea
that the Bible could be applied to one’s life today.
Since I didn’t know very much about the Bible, I
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A Citizen of the Kingdom
thought I wasn’t supposed to pray for material things
and I didn’t dare pray for any kind of financial blessing.
I thought the only thing to ask God for was something
spiritual.
I thought, “Well, if the only things I can talk to God
about are spiritual, then I have nothing to say to Him”.
I did not bother communicating with Him until one day
when I was still in high school. I decided that I wanted
to become a great track star, a pole-vaulter. I would sit
around and think about all of the records that I was
going to break. I just knew I could do it! I remembered
hearing somebody tell about how they had prayed and
asked God for something. I decided that, since I was
going to be a great track star, maybe I should talk to
God about it. That is the only time that I can remember
that I really prayed when I was growing up. I knelt
down beside my bed and said, “God, if You’ll make me a
great pole-vaulter and help me break all those records,
then I will serve You; I’ll turn my life over to You.” I
really thought that I was offering Him a pretty good
deal!
The next day at track practice I broke my leg on the
very first attempt. I thought, “Bless God! That’s the last
time I’ll ever ask Him for anything.” The kind of image
that I had of God was that I shouldn’t dare ask Him for
anything that has to do with the material realm or the
financial realm. The only thing I could talk to God
about was something spiritual, and the only people who
reach Him are those who talk spiritual. So, I grew up
with the idea that I was not supposed to ask God to
bless me financially or materially. The only thing that I
could talk to God about was something spiritual, like
getting saved and going to Heaven.
I Found the Key!
9

It was very startling to me to find that the Word of
God says, “... I pray (desire, wish) above all things that
thou mayest prosper and be in health even as your soul
prospers.” I had never heard anybody say anything like
that before.
I thought, “Dear Lord! Either I have not heard the
truth or the apostle John is wrong.” John wrote by the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit. The Word of God is
forever settled in heaven. It is eternal! The Bible says
that the grass withers and the flower fades, but the
Word of God shall stand forever. I chose to believe what
the Word said. This led me to believe that maybe God
was interested in my financial, physical, and material
welfare.
I also began to realize that I could surely get off into
an area of danger, if I began to magnify the wrong
things. If I got my eyes on money or on things, I could
miss the whole point of what He is saying here. I read
some more. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24:
No man can serve two masters: for either he
will hate the one, and love the other; or else he
will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye
cannot serve God and mammon.
And
Therefore I say unto you, take no thought
for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall
drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put
on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body
than raiment?
v. 25
I read,
... Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye
have need of all these things. But seek ye first
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the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and
all these things shall be added unto you.
vv. 32,33
I also read what Jesus said in Luke chapter 12. I liked
what I found in verse 32:
Fear not, little flock; for it is your Fathers
good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
I had to dig deeper into the Word. I read those verses
again. “... all of these things shall be added ...” What
other things? I backed up and reread this passage of
scripture. I then realized that if I would seek FIRST the
kingdom of God, and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, then,
thank God, He would supply all the material necessities
of life: my food, clothing, shelter, and drink.
I said, “Well! Praise God! That must be the key. I
have to FIRST seek the kingdom of God. But how can I
go about seeking FIRST the kingdom?” I kept on
reading the Word and I discovered that through the
substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, according to
Colossians, Ephesians, Galatians, and all of Paul’s
epistles, that He has already delivered us from the
power of darkness, and translated us into the kingdom
of His dear Son. I realized that first I had to seek the
kingdom of God, then I would enter into that kingdom
through the new birth. I was born again, praise God,
and through the new birth I entered into the kingdom of
God. I became one of the beloved!
“OH, But That Doesn’t Make You
Righteous.” Someone Said
I accepted the fact that because—I WAS BORN
AGAIN, I was no longer in the power of darkness. I had
been translated into the kingdom of God through the
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new birth. And I thought, “That’s one down, and one to
go, now all I have to do is seek His righteousness.”
I was confused, because Spirit filled, tongue talking,
Bible carrying, Church going, Christians had told me,
“Brother, you will never be righteous until you get to
heaven.”
I decided that if I couldn’t become righteous until I
get to heaven, then I couldn’t expect any kind of
material blessing until I get to heaven, because He said,
“Seek ye first the kingdom and His righteousness, then
all these things shall be added unto you.”
I thought, “Dear Lord! I’m not going to need those
things when I get to heaven. I need them now! And if I
can’t get them until I become righteous, then I am
wasting my time down here asking You to bless me.”
As I studied the Word, I found out that we do not
become righteous when we get to heaven. In fact, unless
we become righteous while we are here on the earth, we
won’t go to heaven. The Bible says in Romans 10:9-10,
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth
the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart
that God hath raised him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness; and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation.
Romans 5:17 says,
For if by one man’s offence death reigned by
one; much more they which receive abundance
of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall
reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.
Righteousness if a gift! Romans 3:22 says,
... the righteousness of God which is by faith
of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
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believe...
Righteousness is received by faith and verse 25 tells us
that we are to declare Jesus’ righteousness.
I saw the light! I did seek the kingdom of God. I did
seek HIS righteousness. I believed in my heart that I
had been made the righteousness of God: I received it by
faith. And you know what happened? All of those “other
things” started coming in, just as He said. Why?
Because they belong to me. God promised them in His
Word.
You Can Have It Too!
When you accept Jesus as the Lord of your life, you
become a citizen of the kingdom of God. You become a
joint-heir with Jesus; and heir of God; delivered from
the power of darkness, and translated into the kingdom
of God. You become one of the beloved! Then you are
ready to receive the prosperity that is rightfully yours.
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2
2 Jesus Paid the Same Price
for It All
As we look at the subject of prosperity, we are going
to look at it from perhaps a different angle than you
have considered it before. We are going to talk about
Prosperity of the Soul. And when you finish this study,
you will be able to see what can be produced as a result
of your soul prospering. We will read again:
Beloved, I wish above all things that thou
mayest prosper and be in health, even as thy
soul prospereth. I have no greater joy than to
hear that my children walk in truth. Beloved,
follow not that which is evil, but that which is
good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that
doeth evil hath not seen God.
3 John 2, 4, 11
Please note: I am not trying to take Scriptures out of
context. My main purpose in skipping around is for the
sake of space.
Somebody said, “Well, that was written to only one
individual.” Well, if it were, He shouldn’t have put it in
my Bible. I am one of the beloved, and as far as I am
concerned, He wrote that letter to you and me. If you
think differently don’t tell me about it! Because it is
working for me. If He is talking to one beloved, He is
talking to all the beloved. He is saying in other words, “I
desire, I pray, I wish, above all things ...” You should
underline the words all things in your Bible, because
this has priority in the mind of John the apostle.
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Evidently, it is the same way with the Spirit of God.
The Bible tells us that “All scripture is given by
inspiration of God . . . ” (II Timothy 3:16). John,
inspired by the Holy Spirit, recorded that we should all
prosper and be in good health as our own soul prospers.
It is His desire, and it is above all things as far as the
Spirit of God is concerned. If this letter was written to
one Christian, then it was written to all Christians.
Somebody said, “Jerry, the greatest thing that God
would have us to do is get saved.”
That’s right, but redemption paid for more than
your just getting saved and escaping hell. Salvation is a
great thing. Of course, it should be the first and
foremost step that you take. But don’t get the idea that
being saved is more important than healing for your
body; that being saved is more important than your
prospering financially and materially. Jesus of
Nazareth paid the price, once and for all, for the sin in
your life, for the poverty in your life, and for the
sickness in your life with the same substitutionary
sacrifice. It is no more important in the eyes of God that
you be saved than that you prosper.
Verse 2 reveals to us that in the mind of God above
everything else, He wants us to prosper and be in good
health even as our soul prospers. I would like to point
out that God wants people saved, and He wants them
healed just as much as He wants them saved. If He did
not, then Jesus would only have paid the price for sin.
There would have been some other kind of sacrifice,
perhaps a lesser sacrifice for healing.
If you have any idea or opinion that God wants you
saved, but you don’t know whether or not He wants you
healed, then you have missed it. If you say, “I know that
God wants me saved, but I don’t know if he wants me
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Jesus Paid the Same Price for It All
blessed financially,” you have missed the whole point of
Calvary.
Calvary has much more involved in it than just
delivering you from hell. It is important to God that you
are blessed physically and financially, as well as
spiritually. God doesn’t break these things up into
different categories as people do.
Again, of course, it is important to go to heaven. But
as far as God is concerned, the sacrifice at Calvary paid
the price for your not only escaping hell and having
heaven as your eternal destiny, but also while you are
in this earth you can live free from sin, grief, sorrow,
pain, and the curse of poverty. In the eyes of God there
is not any one part of that substitutionary sacrifice any
greater than any other part of it. Jesus paid the price in
full. Praise God! Salvation, health, and financial
prosperity have been made available to you and to me.
Heaven gave its best, Jesus of Nazareth. He paid
the price. He died for my sin; He became sick with my
sickness, and He became poor that I might become rich.
Yes, I desired to be delivered from hell. I was
delivered, and I am not going to hell. Somebody says,
“Well, how do you know?” Because the Bible tells me so!
“Where?” John 3:16 says,
For God so loved the world, that he gave his
only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in
him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Well, if I can depend on John 3:16,then bless God, I can
depend on 3 John 2. Because the same Holy Ghost
inspired both Scripture verses.
Let's Major on What God Majors on
He said that He desires above all things that the
17

beloved prosper and be in health even as their soul
prospers. I not only have God’s Word for it, but I have
enjoyed many experiences to prove that it is His will.
Notice: the same John who wrote 3 John 2 also wrote
the gospel of John. If John was in error in 3 John 2,
then it is likely that he missed it in John 3:16. But he
didn’t miss it. He received his information from God
through the inspiration of the Holy Ghost.
“But,” some might say, “I had rather get people
saved than get them healed.”
Listen! There are just as many people in the earth
today who are sick physically, as there are spiritually
sick. There are just as many people in the earth today
who are sick financially as there are spiritually sick.
And the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus, covered it all.
The reason, most of the time, that we have majored
on being saved from sin is because in the past, so few
dared to preach on healing. Few dared to preach on
financial prosperity. God is just as interested in healing
sick bodies as He is in saving people from the
damnation of hell. God is looking for some men who will
not compromise the message of healing—men who will
dare believe God and preach His whole message,
according to the Word of God.
It is time that Christians—“the beloved”—become
concerned and quit dwelling in a realm where we think
that one thing is more important than the other,
because Jesus Christ of Nazareth paid the same price
for it all.
If salvation is available to me, I want it.
If healing is available to me, I want it.
If financial prosperity is available to me, I want it
too, praise God!
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3
3 Become Established in the
Word
I learned how to be born again through the Word of
God. I learned how to get healed through the Word, and
I learned how to be prosperous through the Word. It is
all in there, and we need to spend much time in the
Word. Let’s take another look at 3 John 2,4,
Beloved, I wish (I desire, I pray), above all
things that thou mayest prosper and be in
health, even as thy soul prospereth. I have no
greater joy than to hear that my children walk
in truth.
How can we walk in truth? Jesus prayed, “Sanctify
them through thy truth: thy Word is truth” (John
17:17). He is saying that when believers are walking in
truth—walking in the Word, they will prosper. You
cannot help but prosper when you walk in truth. When
you are walking in the Word of God, you are walking in
truth, and prosperity comes from walking in truth.
God Gives Christians Power to Get
Wealth
God said in Deuteronomy 8:18,
But thou shalt remember the Lord thy God:
for it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth,
that he may establish his covenant which he
sware unto thy fathers, as it is this day.
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God gives Christians power to get wealth, that He may
establish His covenant (Word) in the earth. One of the
distinguishing marks of a believer, in the sight of God,
is prosperity. He said that this is the method that He
uses to get His Word established in the earth.
How many people have you known or seen, who
were impressed by Christians who said, “It is God’s will
that Christians be poor”. Does that impress you? It did
not impress me.
Paul tells us in Romans 11:11, 12 that the reason
that God turned to the Gentiles with the gospel was to
provoke the Jew to jealousy for the gospel. How many
Jews have you ever made jealous for the gospel by
telling them that if they become Christians they have to
be poor? The descendants of Abraham will not go for
poverty, because the old covenant promised them
blessings coming in, and blessings going out, blessings
in the city, and blessings in the field. You will find that
a Jew who is on the old covenant is a prosperous Jew.
And you’re not going to impress a prosperous Jew who
is living according to the old covenant by telling him to
live by the new covenant, and then tell him that he has
to be poor. That won’t make a Jew jealous, and neither
will it impress him.
Christians Have Been Called
“CRUMBS” Because of Tradition
We need to realize that as far as the world is
concerned, Christians, in the past, were “crumbs.” They
were the “scum of the earth.” They were the “little
people.” But I want you to know that the Body of Christ
isn’t poor any more! Because God is having men preach
prosperity.
Do you know why men are getting saved at a more
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Become Established in the Word
rapid rate than natural childbirth today? Because men
are preaching salvation.
Do you know why people are getting healed, and
being delivered from their diseases at a greater rate
than ever since the history of the church? Because men
are preaching healing.
Do you know why the Body of Christ is prospering?
Because the Word is being preached concerning
prosperity. God confirms His Word that is spoken with
signs following.
No wonder the Body of Christ stayed so poor all of
those years. Most men were preaching that God loves
poverty. They thought that if you ever acquired any
money, or a better automobile, you were probably
sinning. That was the old traditional idea of what God
thought about anybody getting blessed.
A man I once met got so angry at me because God
was blessing me. You see, he had been a Christian for a
long time and he was having a hard time. It seemed as
though nothing ever worked for him. The reason was
that he didn’t know his contract with God. He didn’t
know what I’m sharing with you. The Bible says that I
have a better covenant, founded on better promises; I
was just standing on my covenant.
If the Jew can be blessed financially on the old
covenant, how much more can a Gentile on the new?
Well, I was just standing on my covenant, praise
God; believing what God said. And God was honoring it.
He is faithful who has promised. He was confirming His
Word.
When God blessed me with a better automobile, that
man became mad. He was convinced that I was sinning.
“Preachers shouldn’t have an automobile like that!” he
21

would say. Then when I gave the automobile away, that
blew his mind. “Preachers don’t give things away,” he
said. “They are always looking for something.”
I ask you: where in the world do you suppose he got
an idea like that? From the ministry. That is the image
that the ministry has projected to the Body of Christ
and the world. That is the reason that half of the
members of the Body of Christ didn’t want to live by
faith. The ministers have projected the faith life as a
poor life; a “barely making it life”; a life that you never
know what God is going to do, and you never know,
from one moment to the next how things are going to
turn out. No wonder that half of the Body of Christ
says, “Dear God, I hope that I never have to live by
faith.”
We Need to “UNLEARN” Some
Traditional Teaching
We have been taught wrong. One of the hardest
things that the Body of Christ is involved in today is
having to unlearn those old traditional, wrong ideas
that have been rooted in us for so many years. It is not
the easiest thing to do, but thank God, that is exactly
what the Bible is for. The Bible is called “a two-edged
sword”. One side of that sword is for the devil and the
other side is for you—to clean you up.
Sometimes when you stick that Sword in you, it
hurts. It doesn’t feel too good when you run that Sword
through yourself and say, “Wait a minute! This is what
the Word really says regardless of what I have been
taught.” Your old traditions will start rising up on the
inside of you and say, “Yes, but we were taught it like
this fifteen years ago.” That Sword begins to cut away
the things that choke the Word. It hurts, but the best
22

Become Established in the Word
thing for you to do is cut it out. Let God heal the sore,
and go on and get established in the Word, and walk in
the Word.
John said, “I have no greater joy than to see my
children walk in truth.” If you walk in truth you are
going to prosper. You will remember that He also told
us, “Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that
which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that
doeth evil hath not seen God”. I want to point out again
that this is not a novice talking. This is an apostle. The
same John that told us, “I wish above all things that
you might prosper ...”, also said, “Do not follow anything
that is evil.” Therefore, you can conclude that prosperity
is not evil.
Jesus said, “Father, thy will be done on earth as it is
in heaven.” Is there any poverty in heaven? Then why
should I have to live in poverty to serve God? Is there
any debt in heaven? Then why should I have to live in
debt to serve God? Have you ever visited the throne of
God, in prayer, and asked Him to meet a particular
need, and He told you, “I would love to do this for you.
Oh, I’d love to meet your need, but you know we have a
depression going on up here. I had to lay Jesus off this
morning. The angels are on strike, and I had to sell the
pearly gate to pay the note on the throne room!” No! You
won’t hear that, because they don’t have depressions in
heaven. They don’t have inflation in heaven. They don’t
drive ’49 Fords in heaven. And if they don’t drive ’49
Fords in heaven, then why should I have to drive one
here on earth?
Become established! Walk in the Word and you will
be walking in truth, and the truth will set you free.
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4
4 The Root of All Evil
Invariably, if one starts preaching on prosperity
someone will say, “But, don’t you know that the Bible
says that money is the root of all evil?”
That is what we have been taught through the
years. And that is one of the things that Christians
need to unlearn. The Bible doesn’t say that money is the
root of all evil. If it did, then God would be guilty of sin.
You talk about someone who lives well! Jesus didn’t
say, “In my Father's house are many cabins, shacks,
and bungalows . . . ” He said, “... there are many
mansions. ” Poor people do not live in mansions. They
don’t have streets of gold. And they don’t have a gate
out at the front, carved out of a pearl.
That erroneous teaching is one of the ways that
satan uses to deceive Christians concerning prosperity.
He would love to stop it. If the truth is not taught, it
cannot be confirmed. Jesus tells us that any time one
begins to teach revelation knowledge, satan will come
immediately to take it away.
A lot of people will get angry and say, “Bless God,
that preacher should not be talking about prosperity.
He should be talking to people about getting saved.”
Prosperity is a part of the Gospel, “the good news,” and
it should be preached.
God’s Nature Is Abundance
Many people have the idea that the nature of God is
25

miraculous. God’s nature is not to perform miracles.
God’s nature is abundance; miracles only occur
when there is lack.
Somebody said, “Yes, but don’t you know, the
apostle Paul said, “I have learned to be content?”
Yes, I know, but do you know God’s definition of the
word content? It’s found in 2 Corinthians 9:8: “And God
is able to make all grace abound towards you, so
that you have all sufficiency in all things.” I believe
that I could be content living like that—couldn’t you?
Paul said, “I have learned the secret of facing every
situation. I know how to be full. I know how to be
abased, and I know how to abound for I have learned
the secret. When I am weak, then I am strong”. He said,
“I can do all things through Christ who
strengthens me.” The Amplified version of the Bible
puts it this way: “I can do all things through Christ
who infuses inner strength into me.” Paul’s
dependency was on Christ, and all that Christ had
done. He is telling us that He was dependent upon all
Christ had done through His sacrifice at Calvary.
Let’s look at what Paul said about love of money.
For the love of money is the root of all evil:
which while some coveted after, they have erred
from the faith, and pierced themselves through
with many sorrows. But thou, O man of God, flee
these things …
I Timothy 6:10, 11
Some will say, “Ah! See now, there, he says flee
those things! And right there, he is talking about
money.”
That is not what he is saying. He didn’t tell you to
turn your back on prosperity or financial blessings. He
26

The Root of All Evil
is not saying, “Don’t ever have any money.” He is
talking about fleeing evil: fleeing the love of money,
fleeing error, and fleeing covetousness. He is telling us
to avoid getting involved with evil because it will cause
us to be pierced with many sorrows. It will cause us to
be in error. He said,
Charge them that are rich in this world, that
they be not highminded, nor trust in uncertain
riches, but in the living God, who giveth us
richly all things to enjoy.
v. 17
Money is a part of all things. In other words, don’t put
your faith in your money because there are many things
that your money cannot buy. But put your faith in the
living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy.
You have known people who have kept piling up
their money for a rainy day. They had so much
confidence in their money, they would say, “We’ll save
our money, because one of these days down the road,
there may come a rainy day.” They programmed
themselves to believe that to the point that it never
failed, and just about the time retirement came, so did
the rainy day. And it took every dime they had. They
were trusting in uncertain riches.
Don’t misunderstand: God is not telling us, and I am
not telling you that you shouldn’t have a bank account.
But I am saying if your faith, and your trust is in your
bank account—watch it! Because there are many things
that your bank account cannot buy. Put your trust in
God. He gives you all things to enjoy.
A gentleman once came to our congregation, who
was dying of five major diseases. And any one of them
was enough to kill him. We had never seen the man
until he came into our service. He was a Minister. He
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had been in the ministry some 30-35 years. One
morning, I was praying and asking the Lord what He
wanted me to preach to that group of people. He said, “I
want you to preach on healing.”
I said, “Why do You want me to preach on healing?
Everybody in this congregation is healed.”
He said, “Preach on healing.” I said, “But Lord, why
do You want me to preach on healing? There isn’t
anybody sick in our congregation.”
He said again, “I want you to preach on healing.” I
said, “All right, I’ll preach on healing.” I began to
meditate the Word. I asked the Lord how He wanted me
to approach it; what He wanted me to tell them.
When I got to the service, a woman come in and
brought her husband. That man was very ill and bowed
over. If you have ever seen someone in the hospital who
was dying, this man looked like that. He looked like
death when they brought him in the door. The wife set
him down very gently. He just sat there all shriveled up
in that chair. The Spirit of God spoke to me and said,
“That is the reason I want you to preach on healing. I
want you to spoon-feed that man the word of faith, the
word of life, the word of health.” He said, “I am going to
heal him.” I preached healing like everybody there
needed to hear it.
I could see what was happening on the inside of the
man. His faith was rising, and his wife could hardly sit
still. When I finished preaching I said, “Bring that man
to me.” They brought him up, and just as I laid my
hands on him the Spirit of God spoke to me.
I began to speak prophetically to the man. “In the
Name of Jesus of Nazareth, you will enter in just a few
short days, the main thrust of the ministry that God
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has called you to.” As I said before, I didn’t know the
man, or know that he was a preacher. But I said,
“You’ve been in the ministry, but you have never
entered into the main thrust, the main stream of what
God has called you to do. But in a few short days you
shall enter into the main thrust of what God has called
you to do.” In the natural, I would not have told a man
who looked like he did, anything like that. But it came
out of my spirit. If my mind had said it, I wouldn’t have
said it. When I laid hands on him, there was no physical
manifestation that anything happened.
After the service I talked with him. He told me what
was wrong with him. One of the diseases that he had
was the same disease that killed Aristotle Onasis. And
you know as well as I that if money could have bought
his healing, he would have been cured. He did not lack
in finances. If he had his trust in money, then he found
that he had something that money could not buy, the
cure. It takes the power of the living God to heal the
incurable. When money can’t buy health, and medicine
can’t cure it, then it takes the power of the living God,
and that is what we were aiming at.
I started praying and interceding for that man all
through the night, groaning and travailing in the spirit
for him. The next morning the Spirit of God said to me,
“I want you to go over to his home and minister to him.
I want you to keep feeding him the Word. I want you to
take him some money. He has spent everything he had
on doctor bills and pills, and I want you to help him.”
I went to the man’s home and found him lying on
the couch. He was the most pitiful thing that I had ever
seen. I said to him, “God sent me here, and I am going
to preach the word of health to you, and when you get it
in you, then you are going to preach it to me. I’m in this
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with you, Brother, in the Name of Jesus.” I started
preaching the Word to him.
One of the diseases, he had, caused him to lose his
ability to see clearly. It was impossible for him to read
his Bible. His bones had become so deteriorated that
every time he rolled over, or turned, he crushed them.
His body was so frail. All he could do was sit, and he
couldn’t do that very long at a time. I ministered to him
financially, and I could see God’s Word working on the
inside of him.
The next day, I had to go to California to conduct a
seminar. While I was there, my wife called, just before
the service began and said, “They have just rushed
Brother Rutledge to the emergency room, and his wife
said that the Doctor told her that he would die, and
they want you to pray.”
Well, when I got to my service, I had all the people
stand. We started praising God, worshiping the Lord,
and thanking Him for what He had already done. I
knew that God would not have me tell that man those
things, and then not allow them to come to pass. I was
not a false prophet. I have more confidence in my ability
to hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. I refuse to hear
the voice of a stranger. I believe that I can have what I
say. And I knew, that I knew, that I knew, how that
was going to turn out! There was no reason for me to go
around crying, bawling, and squalling, and begging God
to do something. We praised God for how it was going to
turn out.
The next Monday morning, when I got back to my
office, my secretary called me and told me that someone
wanted to see me. She told me that it was the man that
we had been ministering to. I said, “Show him in.”
In came a fellow who looked like a million dollars!
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He walked into my office standing tall. Color was back
in his flesh. He looked like a brand new man. He
pointed his finger at me and said, “Brother! I’ve got
something to tell you.”
I said, “I’ll bet you do. Sit down and let’s hear it.”
That man had died on the operating table. The doctors
stood over him and wrote deceased on his records.
He said, “The last thing that I heard was those
doctors saying, ‘He’s dying’.” Then everything became
dark. I couldn’t hear anything else. Then, I knew that I
was in the presence of the Lord. The first thing that I
said to the Lord was, ‘I thought You said I wasn’t
through.’ The Lord didn’t say anything to me; He just
smiled.” The man went on to tell me that He saw his
whole life before him. The Lord showed him everything
that he had done in the ministry, in the twinkling of an
eye. Then the Lord waved His hand and showed him
the harvest that is ripe in the world today. Then the
man said, “But Lord, I thought you said that I wasn’t
through. What has all that to do with me? I thought
You said that I was just moving into the main thrust of
what You called me to do. The Lord still never said a
word to me. He just smiled, put His hand on my back
and shoved me out into that harvest.”
The next thing the man heard was the doctor
screaming, “He’s alive! He’s alive! He’s alive!”
That man, at the time of this writing, has preached
over seventy-five crusades across the United States. I’ll
tell you, in the Name of the Lord Jesus, he is one of the
most beautiful sights I have ever seen. That’s
Prosperity!
In these last days, it is being preached more and
more that it is God’s desire that the Body of Christ
prosper; physically, spiritually, financially, and
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materially. The Body of Christ is going to finance the
greatest revival that has ever been experienced on the
face of the earth. It is the Body of Christ who is going to
funnel the money into it. It is God’s will for us to have
money as revealed in verse 2 of 3 John,
Beloved, I wish (desire) above all things that
thou prosper and be in health even as thy soul
prospers.
Somebody says, “But that is talking about spiritual
prosperity.” Well if it is, the Bible says that all things
that were made were made by Him and for Him—a
Spirit Being created all matter. Financial blessings
come, first of all, in the spirit, then it is manifested in
the physical. Let me say it this way: Money begins, first
of all, in the spirit because you are involved in a
spiritual application when you pray and ask God for
finances. Somewhere down the line it will be manifested
in the physical. You can’t purchase an item with
something that you can’t see, hold, or feel. Money is a
medium of exchange. It takes two people to make a
financial transaction. One has the goods and the other
has the money to purchase the goods. You don’t walk
into a store and say, “Listen, I just prayed and asked
God for five dollars; I want you to take my prayer as a
down payment on what I need.” That merchant is
interested in trading his goods for something that he
can see; particularly if it is colored green and has the
picture of a famous President printed on it!
Financial prosperity starts out in the spiritual
realm, but it will be manifested in the physical realm.
Paul said in Ephesians 1:3, “... our Lord Jesus
Christ who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings ...” He went on to say, “And hath raised us
up together, and made us sit together in heavenly
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places in Christ Jesus” (2:6). Peter said, “According
as his divine power hath given unto us all things
that pertain to life and godliness” (2 Peter 1:3) God
has, through His divine plan obtained for us ALL
THINGS that pertain to life. And the Word says that
God has already given them to us. How? Through the
substitution sacrifice at Calvary. Jesus paid for it all at
Calvary.
If Prosperity is bought and paid for, I want it; it
belongs to me. How about you?
Somebody said, “Oh, but you will get all of that
when you get to heaven.”
I won’t need any money when I get to heaven. I
won’t need an automobile when I get to heaven. I won’t
need a house when I get to heaven. I need those things
now, while I am here on earth.
We Need to Have Our Minds Renewed
Where Prosperity Is Concerned
Prosperity does not deal with finances only. He said,
“I would that you prosper and be in health ...” He not
only wants us to prosper spiritually, but financially,
materially, and physically as well. The man I was
referring to experienced physical prosperity, something
that his money could not buy. If he had been trusting in
his money, he would have lost every dime he had, trying
to get healed. He would have found out that his money
couldn’t buy everything that he needed. But, thank God,
I want you to know that when he began to prosper in
his soul, his mind began to be renewed to God’s system
and his mind began to think like God thinks—according
to the Word. His soul was prospering, Praise God.
Therefore, he prospered physically.
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The apostle John is not only telling us that God
desires above everything else that we prosper
spiritually, but financially, materially, and physically,
as well.
Someone said, “Well, if He wants all that for me,
why doesn’t He just do it?”
Because every promise of God is conditional. They
do not come on you like ripe apples off a tree. Salvation
is available to everyone, even the sinner. If that were
not true, you and I would have never been saved.
Healing is available to all. Righteousness is available to
everyone the Bible says. Prosperity is available to all,
but it does not come on you just because you are a
Christian. It is conditional. And the condition is: “I
would that you prosper and be in health EVEN AS thy
soul prospers.”
A Major Avenue That Satan Uses
Christians have either gone from one extreme to the
other, where prosperity is concerned. They think that
preachers are after their money, or that Christians
should be poor. Jesus talked about the deceitfulness of
riches in the fourth chapter of Mark. He said that the
deceitfulness of riches is one of the major avenues that
satan uses trying to make believers non-productive.
Satan uses this avenue to try to steal the Word out of a
man’s heart. Let’s find out from God’s Word how to
avoid this trap. Then let’s get all this carnal, traditional
knowledge out of our thinking. The Word does not say
that Christians are supposed to be poor. God does not
love poverty. You may find that you will have to start
over, and put everything that you have heard about
what God thinks about prosperity, upon the shelf. Get
into the Word. Read the Word, and meditate the Word.
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Then you will find that you will not pick those religious
ideas up from that shelf again. As you continue in the
Word, you will know the TRUTH and the truth will set
you free.
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5
5 A Closer Look at Man
The Spirit of God once said to me, “Son, you are
going to prosper materially, financially, and physically
in direct proportion to the Prosperity of your Soul.” He
said, “Son, I said, ‘even as thy soul prospers’.”
If your soul is not prospering then you are not going
to prosper materially. If your soul is not prospering, you
are not going to prosper financially.
You may say, “Well, what about the rich sinner?”
Well, what about him! That person has only a
temporary prosperity. It will not last. I don’t care how
many of those beer drinking, whiskey guzzling, people
you know who are doing whatever they want to do, with
no regard for God yet seem to be prosperous, it is only
temporary. The Bible says, “... the wealth of the
sinner is laid up for the just” (Proverbs 13:22). I like
the way the Amplified Version of the Bible says this
same verse of Scripture: “A good man leaves an
inheritance (of moral stability and goodness) to
his children’s children, and the wealth of the
sinner (finds its way eventually) into the hands of
the righteous, for whom it was laid up.” I am that
righteous person; aren’t you? It will eventually come
into the righteous’ hands. It belongs to us, praise God!
A Temporary Reservoir
The sinner who possesses wealth is only a
temporary reservoir. Satan finds somebody on whom he
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can dump those finances on; because he wants to keep
them out of the hands of the Body of Christ. He knows
that if the Body of Christ ever gets their hands on those
finances, they will put it into the gospel. And once it is
put into the gospel, God’s power is manifested. When
God’s power is manifested, people are healed, they are
saved, they are delivered, and they are set free. As
God’s power is manifested, the Body of Christ begins to
mature. All the spots, the blemishes, and the wrinkles
begin to disappear. The perfecting of the Saints is what
ushers in the soon appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ. I
believe that point of “eventually" has come. You can get
in on it now if you wish, or you can wait until you get to
Heaven. I want mine now! Praise God! I need it now. I
have a lot of gospel to preach, and it takes more money
to preach it now than it ever has before.
Christians will prosper physically, financially, and
materially in direct proportion to the prosperity of their
souls.
Man? A Triune Being
You may have this question in your thinking: “What
do you mean when you say that I will prosper in direct
proportion to the prosperity of my soul?”
Well, you need to get this fact established right now.
Man is triune in his being. Man is a spirit, he has a
soul, and he lives in a body.
You are not a soul: you have a soul.
You are not a body: you live in a body.
You do not have a spirit: you are a spirit.
You do not have a human: you are a human.
You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a
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A Closer Look at Man
body.
The fleshly body that you can see is your “earth
suit.” Remember Paul told us, "... to be absent from
the body is to be present with the Lord.” If you are
not reborn—recreated, while you are here on the earth,
you will be present with another lord, satan. Spirit
beings do not dwell in the earth without bodies. So, in
order for you to live in this earth, you—a spirit, must
have an “earth suit", and this is the purpose for the
flesh or physical body.
Paul says, “And the very God of peace sanctify
you wholly (not holy, but wholly); and your whole
spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless
unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (I
Thessalonians 5:23). This shows that man is three
parts. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the Word of God has
the ability to discern the spirit, the soul, and the body.
This tells us that man is a spirit, he has a soul, and he
lives in a body.
By now, you know that John said by the inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, in 3 John 2, that God desires that
you prosper and be in health as your soul prospers.
Notice: EVEN AS YOUR SOUL PROSPERS.
You may say, “Well, if all of that is true, then what
is my soul?”
If you will study the Word of God, you will find that
the soul of man is made up of his mind, his will, his
emotions; his thinking faculties.
You may say, “Well, what about where the Bible
says that if a man doesn’t accept Jesus he loses his
soul?”
This is exactly right. When a person dies and goes to
hell without accepting Jesus as Lord of his life, he has
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no control over his soul. He ends up in a place that was
created for satan and his angels. He has an everlasting
sense of falling, because hell is described as the
bottomless pit. Can you imagine what that must be
like? To have no control over your thinking faculties,
and feeling like you are falling constantly—for eternity?
I once fell off the top of a house, and I thought I
would never hit bottom. I cannot imagine going through
eternity always feeling as though I am falling. That
would be a terrible state of mind.
Your next question may be, “If my soul is made up of
my mind, my will, my emotions, and my thinking
faculties, and I am going to prosper in direct proportion
to the prosperity of my soul, then, how do I cause my
soul to prosper? What constitutes a prosperous soul?”
A prosperous soul is one in which the mind is
renewed, the will conformed, the emotions controlled,
and the thinking faculties selective of that which it
thinks. Remember this: A prosperous soul is one in
which the mind is renewed, converted, revived, and
healed by the Word of God. The word convert means to
turn around. Romans 12:1, 2 tells us: “I beseech you
therefore brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, and be not conformed to
this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing
of your mind.”
Let’s Find Out How the Soul Prospers
Number one: A prosperous soul thinks like God
thinks. If your mind has been renewed to God’s way of
thinking, it has been renewed to God’s system; it has
been renewed to the counsel of God; it has been
converted.
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Before you were saved, your mind was fouled up
with the wisdom of this world. You thought as the world
thinks. And the world thinks, “Well, if you only have
five dollars, don’t dare get rid of it because you never
know; it may get worse.”
The renewed mind thinks, “Give and it shall be
given unto you good measure, pressed down, shaken
together, and running over shall men give unto your
bosom.” If you have a prosperous soul, your mind is
renewed to God’s system.
Number two: In a prosperous soul the will is
conformed. You may ask, “What do you mean by the
will is conformed? Doesn’t God want a broken will?”
Now what in the world would God want with a
bunch of people who have broken wills? He doesn’t want
a broken will. That is the reason that Jesus of Nazareth
did what He did at Calvary. He wanted man’s will to
stay intact. God wants your will conformed to His will,
not broken.
You may say, “Well, the only way I can get my will
conformed to God is to break it.”
No, it’s not. Jesus said in John 15:7, “If ye abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what
ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” The key to a
conformed will is to abide in Christ and have His Word
abiding in you. If His Word abides in you, then your will
becomes the same as God’s will. You will find that you’ll
never ask anything in prayer out of lust. It will be the
perfect will of God when you pray because you think
like He thinks. That constitutes a prosperous soul.
Number three: In a prosperous soul the emotions are
controlled. If your emotions are brought under
subjection to the Word of God, you will not be moved by
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what you see or feel. In order to prosper in God’s way of
thinking, your five physical senses and your emotions
have to be under control. When you ask God to meet a
financial need, and it doesn’t look like anything is
happening, your emotions could run away with you.
And you could sit down and want to beat your head
against the table and say, “Why isn’t it working? I don’t
understand.” When you have no evidence according to
your five physical senses that your need is met, your
emotions will run away with you. This is the reason a
prosperous soul is one in which the emotions are
controlled. Your emotions are controlled by the Word of
God. When your sense-gate called “sight”, starts talking
to you and says, “Boy! I don’t see any change, the
problem still exists.” That’s when the prosperous soul
begins to take action. It will feed that sense-gate the
Word. It will say, “In the name of Jesus, I’m not moved
by what I see. I am moved by what I believe, and I
believe the Word that Jesus said. He said that what
things soever I desire when I pray, that I should believe
I receive them, and I shall have them. I have prayed,
and I know that I know that God is faithful who has
promised. He said that He would supply all my need
according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. I don’t
care how I feel about it, or what it looks like. The Word
says it, and SO BE IT!” Controlled emotions constitutes
a prosperous soul.
Number four: The thinking faculties of a prosperous
soul is selective of what it thinks. Do not sit around and
dwell on negative thoughts if you want to have a
prosperous soul. That is a luxury that Christians cannot
afford. You can’t dwell on what you see on TV, or what
you read in the paper. You cannot dwell on what all the
sinners and half the Christians in town are saying. You
must be selective in what you think. A prosperous soul
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thinks on the things that are found in the Word. Think
on things that are good, things that are lovely, things
that are just, things that are of a good report. Paul said,
“Think on these things.”
When you are believing God for prosperity, satan
will try to lodge a thought in your thinking faculties
that will prove to you that it is not going to work. He
likes to bring up the experience of somebody else. “You
know Brother So and So believed that, and he lost
everything he had.” You dwell on that and you dwell on
it and you dwell on it; the next thing that will develop is
worry. Worry is meditation on negative thoughts: the
thoughts of satan. You start worrying about it, and then
it is not going to just stay in your head. It will drop
down in your heart. And Jesus said that out of the
abundance of the heart, the mouth will speak. When it
leaves your head and gets down into your heart, you
will start talking it. You will talk lack; you’ll talk
poverty; and you’ll talk that it’s not working. Then
spiritual law is released, and you will have what you
say.
The prosperous soul is one in which the mind is
renewed, the will conformed, the emotions controlled,
and the thinking faculties are selective. The key to
living in the kind of prosperity that God has designed
for the Body of Christ is to start thinking right. Talk
like He talks. Dwell on what the Word says, and get
your emotions under control.
Jesus Was a Man with a Prosperous
Soul
Somebody said, “Yes, but Jesus didn’t even have a
place to lay His head He was so poor.”
That is ridiculous! The reason that Jesus did not
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have a place to lay His head was because He was too
busy ministering to those that did. Humanity needed
Him.
If Jesus was so poor, then what was Judas doing?
He was the treasurer. Poor people do not have
treasurers. Evidently they must have had something in
the treasury because Judas was stealing out of it from
time to time, and nobody missed what was being taken
except Jesus. If they only had a few quarters here and
there, don’t you know that the first time James and
John looked into the bag, they would have noticed that
some money was gone? They would have called fire
down from heaven?
Poor men do not have twelve men working for them
and supporting their families. Jesus did. Then He
broadened His Evangelistic Association by
commissioning seventy others. How would you like to
have seventy on your staff if you were poor? That is
something to think about. Jesus had every situation
under control, because His mind was renewed to the
Abrahamic covenant. His will was conformed to God’s
will. He said, “Father, not my will but thy will be
done ...” His emotions were under control. Jesus was
not moved by what He saw. If He was, He would have
run off and hidden when He had to feed five thousand
men, plus the women and children, with five loaves and
two fishes. Jesus’ emotions were under control. He was
selective about what He thought. He was a man with a
prosperous soul. If you don’t know anybody else that
lived this way, study the ministry of Jesus again. He
prospered in every thing that He set His hand to do.
This same prosperity is available to Christians
today. Praise the Lord!
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6
6 True Prosperity
When John wrote, “Beloved, I wish above all
things that thou mayest prosper and be in
health ...," he was wishing two different things for us.
That word “and" is a conjunction, it connects two
thoughts. In Texas, when you see the word and, that
means he “ain't" through talking yet! He is desiring two
things for the beloved. “Prosper AND be in health" are
connected. Don’t take one without the other. Many
times people drop the idea of prosperity.
“Well,” somebody says, “What does he mean by
‘prosper’? Does that just mean having money?”
Not necessarily. Prosperity, in the eyes of God, is
not just having a lot of money. There are many things
that money cannot buy, but faith in the Word can get.
Prosperity does not include only money. But let’s not go
to the extreme and exclude money. People will say,
“Well, you know that money can’t buy everything, and
there are a lot of things more important than having all
the money you need.”
That’s right. But on the other hand let’s not exclude
money, because it is a part of prosperity. The word
barter means to trade or exchange one commodity or
service for another. Money is a medium of exchange,
and we use it to make transactions or trades. We need
money for this purpose. The Bible says in the writings
of Peter, that God has obtained for us all things that
pertain to life and godliness. Money pertains to life and
God has obtained all things for us.
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Somebody said, “If this is so, why don’t I have any
money then?”
If you haven’t guessed by now, that is the reason I
am teaching on Prosperity of the Soul. The Body of
Christ has not walked in the area of financial prosperity
because so few dared to teach on it. “If you start talking
about money they won’t like you,” some would say.
“After all,” they say, “preachers are not supposed to talk
about money.” That is the reason so few of them ever
have any money. They are afraid to talk about it. They
have believed that “Money is the root of all evil,”
instead of the truth which says, “The love of money is
the root of all evil.”
John said, “I would—desire, that you
prosper ...” Money is not the only thing involved in
prosperity, but it plays a vital role in it. According to
the following Scripture verse, God gets great pleasure
when His people are prosperous. “Let them shout for
joy, and be glad, that favor my righteous cause:
yea, let them say continually, Let the Lord be
magnified, which hath pleasure in the prosperity
of his servant” (Psalm 35:27).
People have had the mistaken idea that if any
member of the Body of Christ ever prospers it is
because they have gotten off into sin. If the preacher
gets a new automobile, “He isn’t humble any more.”
Satan wants them to believe that, because he realizes
that if the Body of Christ ever gets their hands on what
rightfully belongs to them, it won’t stick to them. They
will put it into the gospel, the work of the ministry.
They will revive this old world as it has never been
revived before.
Don’t Hoard Money: Keep the Cycle
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True Prosperity
Going
Since the Bible says that the wealth of the sinner
has been laid up for the just, and that it will eventually
find its way into the hands of the righteous, you should
start walking around with your hands open. It belongs
to you! Praise God! However, I wish to emphasize this:
Don’t hoard money. It doesn’t belong to you for that
purpose. Hoarding up all the money you can get
because, “You never know what is going to happen
tomorrow and you must save for a rainy day,” is not a
testimony to the Lord.
God wants you to have money and prosperity so you
can share it. When you share it, He keeps adding more
to you. You start a cycle that is unending. The key to
that cycle is consistency. You don’t just give once and
receive a return, and then get so stuck on the return
that you decide that you aren’t going to give any more.
You must cast your bread upon the water and not many
days hence, it shall return unto you. (Read Ecclesiastes
11:1). If you keep casting bread out there, somewhere
down the road every wave is going to bring in a return.
Consistency keeps the cycle working. The worst thing
you can do when every wave starts bringing in a return
is to turn your back on God, and hoard up all that you
can set your hands on.
God Gives Power to Get Wealth
God told Israel in Deuteronomy 8:18 to remember
that it is God who gave them the power to get wealth in
order that He might establish His covenant. You will
find that all the strong men of God in the Old
Testament were men of wealth. Abraham was a man of
great wealth. Job was the richest man in all of the east.
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Somebody said, “Yes, but Job lost everything he
had.”
Wait a minute! Read the closing chapter of the book
of Job. God blessed Job with double of everything he
lost. If Job was the richest man in the east and he lost it
all, what do you think that made him when God
doubled everything that he once had?
I dare say that there has never been a man who has
tapped into the resource of wealth that Solomon did.
That does not mean that it is not available. God desires
it for the beloved.
Two Extremes Where Riches Are
Concerned
Many people get cross because of this type of
teaching. They have the idea that all we are dwelling on
is money. No! I am not dwelling on money, but that does
not mean that I should exclude the teaching on it. Don’t
misunderstand. The first time that you allow money to
become priority, you are in trouble. You can go from one
extreme to the other. Jesus showed us that this is one of
the main avenues in which satan will use to steal the
Word from the people in whom the Word has been
sown. He talks about afflictions, persecutions, the lust
of other things, and the cares of this world, and the
deceitfulness of riches.
There are two extremes where riches are concerned.
People will get their eyes on the riches and put their
trust in them, or they will believe that Christians are
not supposed to have any riches. They should live in
poverty. Both are deceit and deception designed by
satan to keep the Christian non-productive. If one
extreme says, “Get your eyes on riches and put your
trust in them,” and the other says, “We are not
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True Prosperity
supposed to have any riches,” then evidently there is a
truth in the middle that you and I can get on and be
blessed by it. I believe that if you will weigh both sides
on this issue, you will find that according to Psalm
35:27, God delights in the prosperity of His people.
The key is this:
You should have prosperity: don’t let prosperity
have you.
You should have money: don’t let money have you.
You should have things: don’t let things have you.
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7
7 The Principle of Giving
and Receiving
God has blessed me in the short number of years
since I accepted Jesus as the Lord of my life. I am not
saying that I have huge amounts of money and that I
never have to trust God for financial assistance. I am
saying that He has blessed my family and me in a
tremendous way, and we are living better now than we
ever have before.
When God began to prosper me and my family, we
began to see that we could not allow things to possess
us. I would like to share an example of how I learned
this.
I had just left Brother Kenneth Copeland’s
organization, where I was an Associate Minister, and I
had been invited to hold a week’s meeting in an
Assembly of God church in a very small town. It was
the very first meeting on my own. We had a total of less
than seventy-five people in that meeting. The same
group came every night. Many of them were not
members of that church. Several of the church members
weren’t coming.
I had made up my mind that God had called me to
preach the gospel, to be instant in season and out, and
that those people were not my source. God was my
source, and if He could not take care of me, then He
should have told me back there in 1969 before I got
involved with this. As a result of relying on Him as my
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source, in that week’s meeting, with only seventy-five
people, God blessed me with $5,100. I didn’t know that
there was that much money in the world! I shall never
forget it as long as I live. Fifty-one hundred dollars!
When I got home, I spent every quarter of it in order
to buy office furniture, typewriters, and equipment to
be used to spread the gospel. I hired a secretary. It got
us started, praise God!
Just twelve days before, I had asked God for $5,000
to start this ministry. In less than two weeks time He
blessed me again with some tape duplicating equipment
that was worth about $5,000.
When I got home that night after I had set that
brand new equipment up in my office, my wife and I
rejoiced. It looked as though God was on our side, even
though half of the Christians doubted it. But we had the
evidence to prove that He was on our side. I was in my
study praising the Lord, just fellowshipping with Him
and thanking Him, when suddenly I heard this come up
in my spirit. I shall never forget it! He said, “Son, I
want you to give part of that tape duplicating
equipment away.”
I thought, “That must have been something I ate!
That couldn’t be the Lord. I haven’t even used it yet.” I
started doing something else so I wouldn’t hear it again.
But every time I got quiet I heard it again. I had two
sets of duplicating equipment. One of them was worth
about $3,600, and the other was worth about $1,500.
The Lord was telling me, “I want you to give one part of
that duplicating equipment to another minister. He
needs it right now.”
I said, “Lord! You just gave it to me.”
He said, “I know it, but I want you to give it to him.”
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The Principle of Giving and Receiving
Isaid, “But Lord, I haven’t even used it yet. Can’t I just
run down there and make a few tapes on it?”
He said, “No, I want you to give it to him.”
I didn’t understand that. I thought, “Well! That isn’t
fair.” It was then that the Lord brought something to
my remembrance.
I was in a television studio in Dallas one day,
preaching on a program there. I wore casual clothes to
the studio, intending on changing into my suit before
going on the air. When I arrived at the studio, I had all
of my clothes except my tie! The program was to be aired
over thirteen different stations and there I was without
a tie. I sat there in the dressing room and said, “Lord,
what am I going to do about a tie?” Someone came in
and offered me a tie that wouldn’t have matched
anything that I would have ever worn! I said, “Lord, I
believe that you can do better than that! I can’t go on
that program wearing that weird looking tie!”
As I sat there a fellow came in and asked if Jerry
Savelle was there. I heard someone say, “Yes, I believe
he is in the dressing room.”
I was surprised when a friend of mine walked in,
and I asked him what he was doing there. He said,
“Well, it just beats anything I have ever seen! I was
down at this men’s clothing store. I had just bought
myself a tie. I was about to put it on when God told me
to take it over to Channel 11 and give it to you.”
I said, “Praise the Lord! I don’t doubt it, Brother.
Help me get it on.”
He said, “I fussed with God all the way over here
saying, ‘Don’t I get to wear it once’? And He said, “No, I
wanted you to buy that tie for Jerry.”
As I fussed about the equipment that God told me to
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give away, the Lord reminded me of the tie incident. He
said, “Son, I presented that piece of equipment to you,
so that I could bless you with greater, by your giving it
away. Son, I don’t know whether you realize it, but you
are a little short of capital right now.”
I said, “You know that You are right.”
He said, “Would you like some more finances to keep
things running smoothly”?
I said, “I certainly would.”
He said, “That is the reason why I gave you this
piece of equipment. I want you to give it for the gospel’s
sake, and I will bless you one-hundred times it’s value.
I’m not trying to take something from you. I don’t give
you something and then just take it away. I am trying
to create an avenue to bless you. I’ll provide you with
even greater equipment and finances to go with it.”
That was when I became really cheerful about
giving—quickly! In fact, I was lying on my face before
the Lord asking Him to forgive me for acting the way I
did. I said, “Father, I want you to know right now, I am
committing myself in Jesus’ name to give the very shirt
off my back for the gospel’s sake, if You desire it. I’ll
never hesitate again when You instruct me to give.”
He said, “Son, that is what I have been wanting to
hear. You have never truly given until you are ready to
give it all.” That blessed me! And from that point on, I
made up my mind that things would never again
possess me.
When God blessed me with my first airplane, I was
so glad. I had believed God and stood on the Word for
two years for that piece of equipment. Two years, night
and day, I confessed, “I believe that I have the perfect
airplane for this ministry.” Two years later, thank God,
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The Principle of Giving and Receiving
it was manifested. I didn’t owe a quarter on it. The very
first thought that came up on the inside of me the day it
was given to me was, “What if God asks me to give it
away?” I told Him right there on the scene as I laid my
hands on that airplane, and received it into this
ministry: “Now God, in the name of Jesus, if You tell me
to give it away before dark, I’ll do it without hesitation.”
He allowed me to use that airplane for about a year,
then He instructed me to sell it and put some of the
money into other ministries. The return on that is still
coming in, praise the Lord!
God is interested in the prosperity of His people, but
the most dangerous thing that His people can do when
God begins to prosper them is to allow those things to
possess them.
I had a very close minister friend. I thought very
highly of him, and I desired to give money into his
ministry. I didn’t have a quarter. I said, “Lord, I want to
finance that man’s ministry. I want to give to him. I
want to support his ministry, but I don’t have a dime.”
The Lord said to me, “Son, my Word says that I not
only multiply seed that is sown, but I am also the
Provider of the seed.” He said, “Use your faith, and I’ll
provide your seed to sow.”
I said, “All right, in the name of Jesus, I believe I
receive seed to sow.” My wife and I joined hands, and
we asked God to bless us with finances not for
ourselves, but that we could invest in that man’s
ministry. In a couple of days, while the man was still in
our town ministering in this meeting, God blessed us
with some money. The first thing that satan hit me
with when I had it in my hands was, “Boy, you could
buy groceries this week with that money. You know you
have a light bill coming up.” I thought of ninety things
55

that I could spend that money on right at that moment.
But I didn’t ask God to give it to me for my own use. I
had asked Him to give it to me to give to someone else.
Just at the moment when God blessed me with the
money, there was a hesitation. The thought came, “You
could do this and you could do that.” The same thought
came to my wife. But we made up our mind, “NO! In the
name of Jesus, this is the avenue God is going to use to
bless us, praise God! He has given us this amount of
money, and we receive it in the name of Jesus to give to
someone else.” We invested it into that man’s ministry,
and God rewarded! We didn’t go without groceries, and
our light bill was paid, thank God. We had more than
enough to do what we had to do that week.
The most dangerous thing that you can get into
when God begins to bless you is to allow material things
to possess you. Giving is the avenue that God uses to
bring greater blessings. This is the reason that John the
apostle went on to say, “I desire that you prosper,
and be in health even as your soul prospers.” He is
actually telling us that we will not prosper physically,
financially, or materially if our souls are not prospering.
If your soul is experiencing soulish poverty, you are
going to experience financial poverty, material poverty,
and physical poverty. Even though God delights in the
prosperity of His servants, it is conditional. It doesn’t
come to you automatically. It comes to you in direct
proportion to the prosperity of your soul.
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8
8 Walking in Truth
If you have a prosperous soul your mind is renewed
to God’s Word. Your will is conformed to God’s will;
your emotions are controlled and brought under
subjection to the Word of God; and your thinking
faculties are selective of that which you think. You will
think according to the instructions found in Philippians
4:8, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are
true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever
things are just, whatsoever things are pure,
whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things
are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if
there be any praise, think on these things.” Then,
thank God! Prosperity (physically, financially, and
materially) cannot help but come your way. John said
that He had no greater joy than to hear that His
children walk in truth. Jesus said in John 17:17, “... thy
word is truth.” We are talking about the Word of God.
Your soul becomes prosperous as you walk in truth. To
walk in truth is to walk in the Word of God.
We read in Psalm 19, “The law of the Lord is
perfect, converting the soul: The testimony of the
Lord is sure, making wise the simple” (v. 7). “The
Word of the Lord is perfect, converting the
soul ...” The word convert means to restore, revive,
heal, and renew. A simple definition of the word convert
means to make an about face, to turn around. In other
words, God is telling us that it takes walking in truth,
or walking in His Word, to convert one’s soul. He is
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saying, “I will prosper you financially, materially, and
physically, as your soul is turned around.” When the
soul stops thinking on carnal knowledge and
magnifying the wisdom of this world, and it is converted
(makes an about face and chooses God’s way, His
wisdom, His counsel, and His thoughts), then
prosperity cannot help but come. “The statutes of the
Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The
commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening
the eyes (God gives wisdom and understanding). The
fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the
judgments of the Lord are true and righteous
altogether (His judgments, His Word is true and
righteous altogether!)” (vv. 8,9).
God has no greater joy than that we walk in His
Word—His truth. When I do this, my soul prospers.
Another Scripture passage that bears out this truth
is Psalms 1:1-3. “Blessed is the man that walketh
not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in
the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the
scornful. But his delight is in the law (Word), of
the Lord; and in his law (Word) doth he meditate
day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted
by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his
fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither;
and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.” He
prospers because he delights in the Word. He meditates
the Word. In other words, he is walking in truth. I like
the way God uses words like whatsoever, everything,
and all. It sounds to me as if there are no exceptions. I
like the way the Amplified Version of the Bible
translates this same passage: “... everything he does
shall come to full maturity.”
“Beloved, follow not that which is evil but that
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Walking in Truth
which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but
he that doeth evil hath not seen God” (3 John 11).
Well! We have found that a prosperous soul comes by
walking in truth—walking in God's Word, and the
above verse tells us that a prosperous soul comes from
following not that which is evil, but that which is good.
We now need a definition of what is good, and where the
good comes from that we should follow after. James 1:17
tells us: “Every good gift [not most of them, or some of
them, but EVERY one of them], and every perfect gift
is from above, and cometh down from the Father
of light, with whom there is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning.” If the Apostle John said,
“Follow that which is good:” and if God is the author of
good and perfect gifts, then He is telling us to follow
after that of which God is the Author.
God is not the Author of most of those silly
television commercials, like, “There is a big headache
out there waiting for you.” If you follow that advice, you
will not have a prosperous soul. Neither is God the
Author of, “When you can’t suppress a cough, let Vicks
do it for you.” I am not preaching against medicine. I
am talking about converting our souls: thinking like
God thinks. I have never approached the throne of God
and found that Jesus had to take off a few days because
He had the flu, and God had Him on Vicks.
Jesus has no use for Vicks and Jerry doesn’t either.
If I didn’t know what I know about God’s Word, Vicks
would be a very close friend of mine. If I didn’t know
what I know about the Word of God, Bufferin would be
a very close friend of mine. I am saying, that before my
soul was converted, my mind renewed, my will
conformed to the Will of God, my emotions controlled,
and my thinking faculties selective, Vicks, Bufferin, and
Anacin, were friends of mine. Why? Because I was sick,
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I needed something to relieve the pain, and I didn’t
know that God’s Word was health to my flesh.
The moment my soul was converted, I didn’t need
those medicines any longer because I began to prosper
physically. It is up to each Christian to do something
with their soul. It must be converted through the Word
of God—by walking in truth.
The problem with a lot of Christians today is that
they are reborn but they are still living by carnal
knowledge. They haven’t done anything about
prospering their souls. They have escaped hell, but they
still live like carnal men while they are on the earth.
Your soul wasn’t recreated when you accepted Jesus
as Lord of your life. The real you, the spirit man on the
inside of your body, was recreated in the image and
likeness of God. Jesus saved you through His
substitutionary sacrifice at Calvary. But it is up to you
to convert your soul. God doesn’t just snap His finger
and all of a sudden you stop thinking bad thoughts.
Converting your soul comes through meditating the
Word. God gave us His Word. He gave you a copy of His
Word, and He sent the Teacher of His Word, the Holy
Spirit, to help you get your soul converted. John said,
“Follow that which is good.”
Acts 10:38 says, “How God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power:
who went about doing good, and healing all that
were oppressed of the devil; for God was with
him.” Jesus went about healing, and God considered
what He did was good. He was healing all that were
oppressed of the devil. If healing is not good in the sight
of God, than Jesus should not have healed anyone. But
if healing is good, then God is the Author of it. His
Word says that every good gift and every perfect gift
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Walking in Truth
comes from God, in whom there is no variableness.
It is not pleasing to God for someone to say,
“Healing is not for us today,” or “Well, you never know
whether or not it is God’s will to heal.” The Bible plainly
tells you that God is the Author of every good thing and
that Jesus went about doing good. Jesus went about
healing the sick and oppressed.
John said, “Follow that which is good.” If you think
that healing is from the devil, and it is not a gift of God,
then you are going to miss out on physical prosperity.
Prosperity of the soul comes when one walks in
truth, and follows that which is good. When one follows
that which is good, his soul begins to prosper.
You cannot prosper in the soulish realm without the
aid of God’s Word. You must walk in truth: walk in the
counsel of God.
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9
9 Walking in Truth Is Your
Responsibility
If you do not know what God’s Word says about
physical prosperity, you will never experience it. In
other words, before you can prosper physically you must
prosper in your soul. Your soul which is made up of
your mind, your will, your emotions, and your thinking
faculties, has to be converted. Jesus paid the price to
save or recreate your spirit. Your spirit was recreated
at the time you accepted the new birth. But nothing
necessarily happened to your soul.
The responsibility of converting your soul is yours.
God gave you the tools that it takes to convert your
soul: His Word and His Spirit. But unless you take
advantage of the tools that He gives you, you will go
through life with a soul that is not prosperous. You will
be saved, but you will still think carnally: the same way
you thought before you were saved. You may not be
quite as ugly, or think all the same ugly thoughts that
you did before you were saved. But listen! It is just as
carnal for a Christian to go around thinking that it is
not the will of God to heal as it is for a Christian to go
around cursing. Both are wisdom that comes from
satan: sensual, devilish, earthy, and carnal. Any person
who reads the Bible ought to have sense enough to
figure out that it is God’s will to heal.
You may say, “Well, He didn’t heal me. And He
didn’t heal Brother So and So. ”
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I am sorry, but I refuse to take that as evidence. I
cannot allow Brother So and So to be the basis upon
which I believe God. I’ll just keep on believing Brother
Jesus!
Jesus believed this, and He is doing well! He bore
my sickness and my disease at Calvary. But He isn’t
sick any more! He got healed. The Bible says that He
bore it all—praise God! He took upon Himself the
sickness and disease of this world. And the Bible says
that His visage was so marred that it didn’t even
resemble the shape of a human being. You cannot
conceive in your mind what a body would look like that
has been stricken with every disease that is known to
mankind. But Jesus of Nazareth bore it all. That is the
reason that Roman soldier stood back and said, “My
God! This has to be the Son of God.” No one but Jesus
could have done that and still be able to say with a loud
voice, “It is finished!”
But thank God! I want you to know that Jesus
doesn’t have any of those diseases any more. The visage
of Jesus isn’t marred any more. He doesn’t have any
problem with His throat or with His back. He is not in
pain in His legs any more. Jesus is not in the agony
that He suffered at Calvary. In fact, the Bible teaches
that when the voice of the Son of God is heard, it is like
the voice of many waters. Does that sound like someone
with a sore throat? Jesus is healed and doing well,
seated at the right hand of God. And thank God! I John
4:17 tells us that as He is so are we.
My throat is well, too, because Jesus bore my sore
throat. If He bore that sore throat, there is no need of
me bearing it now!
I didn’t learn to think like this by reading Mad
Magazines, and certainly not True Confessions! They
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Walking in Truth Is Your Responsibility
aren’t true! The Word of God is THE TRUE
CONFESSION! And it takes the Word of God to convert
one’s soul.
The Mind is the Battleground
When a problem arises does your mind scream out,
“Oh, Dear God! What am I going to do?” If it does, you
need to have your soul converted. When you have your
soul converted and you begin to walk in truth following
that which is good, when a problem arises, the Word of
God will rise up out of your heart (spirit) and your mind
will be in agreement with your heart. They are
fellowshipping together. Instead of your spirit crying
out one thing and your head screaming something else,
they will both say, “In the name of Jesus! It is
written ...” They will both be talking the Word.
The biggest warfare that one can have, and
especially a Christian, is the warfare in his head. The
biggest battles of satan are fought in the mind. The
mind is the battleground. What do you suppose it would
be like if you could get your mind to cooperate with your
spirit and the Word of God? That would be peace. Peace!
Hallelujah! The only way that you will get your mind
quiet, and to think like God, is by walking in truth and
following that which is good. You may say, “But Jerry,
are you telling me that you never have any bad
thoughts?”
That is not what I am saying. But I’ll tell you this,
the moment bad thoughts come to my mind, I do not
have to tolerate them and neither do you! You can think
on good things just as quickly as the devil can put a bad
thought in there. I refuse to sit around and think in
terms of lack. I refuse to think in terms of poverty. I
refuse to think in terms of failure. Oh yes, the thought
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comes every once in a while. I have many opportunities
to fail, but I refuse to entertain it. Because if I entertain
that thought, I will begin to dwell on it. If I dwell on it,
that will cause worry, and once it begins to be in the
form of worry, it will leave my head and drop down into
my spirit. The next thing I know, I will be talking it.
Once I start talking it, I will have what I say.
No wonder the devil attacks the mind first. He
wants to put bad thoughts in there. For instance,
“You’re not going to get your healing this time,” and
“Why, God can’t supply that much money to you by
Friday night!” If you sit there and dwell on those
thoughts, satan will paint you the most beautiful
picture of failure that you have ever seen. Satan will
paint you a picture of failure and defeat if you will allow
him to do so.
Shove Bad Thoughts Out of Your Mind
You can pick up your newspaper and read all the
bad news, watch three hours of television, then go talk
to your neighbor before you go to bed, and I will
guarantee that you will have the opportunity, before the
night is over, to think and dwell on thoughts of defeat,
failure, sickness, lack, depression, and hard times. If
you entertain those thoughts, satan will paint you a
beautiful picture of all this. It will affect you right now.
The Word of God is designed to help us fight the
battle. If you will allow the Word of God to be the
thoughts in your mind, entertain those thoughts, and
dwell on the Word of God, you will say, “My God shall
supply all my need according to His riches in glory by
Christ Jesus! That’s my God! That is my God who shall
supply all my needs ...” You can’t think in terms of lack
when you speak and dwell on the Word of God. I
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Walking in Truth Is Your Responsibility
challenge you to spend thirty minutes dwelling on the
Word and speaking it, and see if you can think thoughts
of failure. You cannot. You can shove negative thoughts
from your mind by replacing them with the thoughts of
God and speaking the Word.
It Takes More Than Just Reading the
Word of God
The reason a lot of people have a problem converting
their souls is because they thought that it comes by only
reading the Word of God. Much more is involved than
that. Yes, you must read the Word, but if that is all you
do, you will never get there. There comes a time when
you have to meditate the Word. That means to dwell on
it. Fix your mind on the Word. Say it to yourself. Allow
the Spirit of God to reveal to you what He is saying.
Many Christians read the Word of God hundreds of
times, but they still cannot tell you a word that it says.
I am talking about revelation knowledge. They may be
able to quote several chapters, but that does not mean
that they are operating in revelation knowledge.
The Word of God is lifeless until it lodges down in
your heart (spirit), and you allow it to work in your life.
Many unsaved people read the Bible, but it doesn’t
mean anything to them, even though it is the Holy
Bible, the Word of God. But, if they will sit there and
dwell on what the Word says (think about it), and allow
God to plant that seed in their heart, then it will
become alive to them and they will act on it. That is
how you were saved. You didn’t just read the Bible. It
began to mean something to you as you dwelt on what
the Word was saying. You realized, “Hey! I can apply
that to myself right now!”
Get that Word in your heart; dwell on it; meditate it;
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fix your mind on the Word and think about it. Then, the
moment you wake up in the morning, your feet will hit
the floor and you will start confessing God’s Word. If
you have only five minutes to read a Scripture passage,
do it. You may not be able to read the Word all day, but
you can dwell on what you read that morning. You can
run it over and over, and meditate what the Word says.
My family knows that I spend a lot of time
meditating the Word of God. This is what set me free;
there is no sense in quitting now. Many times we will be
driving down the road, on our way to a service and my
children won’t be talking much. They know that I am
getting ready to preach, and that I am running over in
my consciousness what I have just read. Many times my
family and I have driven on the highway for hours, and
all of a sudden, I’ll realize that I haven’t said anything
to anyone for a long time. They know what I am doing. I
know by the look on my wife’s face when she has just
received something from the Lord by meditating the
Word. I want to hear it! I don’t want her to quote
something that just sounds pretty. I want to know if she
has found something that we can act on and prosper.
Meditation in the Word is so valuable!
Walking in truth is your responsibility. He said that
as you follow that which is good and you walk in truth,
then you will have prosperity of the soul. Once your soul
begins to prosper, then financial, material, and physical
prosperity cannot help but come to you, praise God!
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10
10 Learn to Act, Talk, and
Think Like God
A Christian whose soul is converted will learn to act,
talk, and think like God. You may think that is a strong
statement, and you will probably ask, “How in the
world am I going to learn to act, talk, and think like
God? Where am I going to find the information
necessary to learn to think like Him? Do I study
Commentaries? Listen to Theological sermons?” NO!
As I have been emphasizing throughout every
chapter in this book: it is all in God’s Word.
“The Bible?”
Yes, the Bible. Some people think that the Bible
should lie on the coffee table for other people to see it. It
is more than an ornament, a dust collector, or a place to
store the flowers that you received from your first date
or senior prom. I heard a story once, and I believe it
illustrates what I am saying. Back during the
depression, some people became so desperate that they
started stealing. One man went to market and sold his
produce for a sum of money. He thought, “Now where in
the world am I going to hide this money, where nobody
will find it?” He decided to hide it in the Bible, because
that was the most unlikely place for anyone to look.
Nobody ever thought of looking in the Bible. It was just
another book as far as many people thought, so why
bother reading it.
You say, “Do you mean to tell me that reading,
69

studying, and meditating the Bible will enable me to
think like God? Will this enable me to act and to talk
like God?” It certainly will. For you see, the Bible is the
thoughts of God put into print.
The Bible is still the number one best seller in the
world today. Preachers are not the only one who have a
right to own a copy of God’s Word. This is the purpose of
the Bible: to get you to thinking like God thinks, You
see, as I begin to read Scriptures like 3 John 2:
“Beloved, I wish above all things that thou mayest
prosper and be in health even as thy soul
prospereth,” then I begin to realize that before true
prosperity can come to me, in the measure that God
desires that I should have it, I am going to have to learn
to think as God thinks. I am going to have to get my
mind renewed. I am going to have to teach my mind to
think the thoughts of God. Therefore, the most sensible
thing to do, to get this working in my life, is start
reading my Bible and meditating His Word.
Isn’t it amazing that God had the Bible put into
print so you could learn to think like Him? The moment
that you begin to think like God, that you become
converted in your soul, your mind will be renewed to
God’s way of thinking.
How you act in a moment of crisis will determine
whether or not you have a prosperous soul. The moment
a crisis or adverse circumstances come to you, what do
you do? Do your emotions begin to run away with you?
Do you begin to break out in a cold sweat? Do you keep
hitting your head and scream, “What am I going to do?”
If you do, then you need to get back into the Word.
Don’t stop meditating the Word until your mind is
renewed.
Once your mind begins to be renewed to what God
70

Learn to Act, Talk, and Think Like God
says about the problem, then your emotions will become
controlled. Your will becomes conformed to God’s will.
You won’t think thoughts like, “This tragedy must be
God’s will to teach me something,” or, “God wrecked my
car to prove that He loves me.”
You will think thoughts like this: “No weapon that
is formed against me shall prosper... This is the
heritage of the servants of the Lord, and my
righteousness is of Him,” and “If God is for me, who can
be against me?”
Someone says, “Oh, I’d love to be able to talk like
that.” It doesn’t come by loving to be able to do it. It
comes from getting in there and meditating God’s Word.
I am still working on it day and night. I have a
desire and a thirst in my heart and in my soul to know
more about God than I know about any other individual
on this earth. I want to know the way He thinks more
than I want to know the thoughts of anybody else on
this earth. The only way that I can do that is by
fellowshipping with Him and abiding in His Word. I
can’t learn all I want to learn about Him, think and act
like Him, and talk like Him, by watching television
eight hours a day, reading nothing but the newspaper,
and fellowshipping with a group of nonbelieving,
negative people.
Somebody said, “Isn’t this going to make us different
from the rest of the world?”
Well! God called you “peculiar!” Praise God! When
you lay hold of this, you will become peculiar. Because
in the midst of a crisis, you are the only one who is
stable, established and settled, not wavering.
One of the greatest things that I have learned about
the man who has his soul converted is when a crisis or
71

pressure comes against him, rather than it destroying
him, that is when he excels! Did you ever see Jesus in a
situation where He was under pressure, or in a crisis,
and He yielded to it and failed? No! Every time there
was pressure you could spot Jesus standing above the
crowd, because He excelled.
The Prosperous Soul Has a
Distinguishing Mark
A distinguishing mark of one who is reborn and his
soul is converted, is this: He excels under pressure; he
rises above every problem. This only comes from
spending much time in the Word. Don’t ever think that
you can spend too much time in the Word.
It’s a Long Way Down to the Bottom
If you ever get to the point where you think, “All
right! I have arrived. I don’t need the Bible anymore.”
Look out, it is a long way down. This is what happens to
many good God anointed and ordained preachers. They
reach the point where they think, “I know it all!”
Instead of thirsting after the Word, they thirst after
things. Please do not misunderstand: God will gladly
give His kids all things that pertain to life. But He does
not want things to become priority. Wrong priorities
have ruined many good ministers of the gospel, as well
as other members of the Body of Christ.
Prosperity of the soul comes when the Believer gives
God’s Word first place in his life. He continues in the
Word. He meditates the Word, and by doing this, he
learns to act, talk, and think like God. He says what the
Word says, he does what the Word says to do, and then
he begins to think just like God.
72

11
11 The Key
Many people have a lot of confidence in the writings
found in John 3:16, and have none in Matthew 6:33,
“But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his
righteousness; and all these things shall be added
unto you.” Why? Because of a lack of teaching. The
reason that Baptist believe so strongly in the new birth,
is because they preach it constantly. The Church of
Christ believe strongly in water baptism, because they
preach it constantly. The Pentecostals believe strongly
in talking in tongues, because they preach it constantly.
If you keep hearing the same teaching over and over
and over, you will develop your faith in that particular
teaching. God will confirm the Word that is being
preached.
If you preach salvation, folks are going to get saved.
If you preach healing, they are going to get healed. If
you preach financial prosperity, they are going to be
blessed financially.
Some time ago, I was in a meeting where the people
who invited me specifically requested that I teach on
the laws of prosperity. I had something else that I
wanted to teach, but they said, “No, our people must
have this teaching.”
I asked the Lord what He thought about it, and He
said, “They are right. They must hear this.” I thought,
“Well, Lord, You know how people are. Some people are
so funny about this. They don’t like to hear preachers
talking about money.”
73

I was that way before I received the Lord. Every
preacher I heard was either begging for money, or
talking about how little of it he had. I didn’t like that. I
said, “That’s the last time I’m going. I have heard those
preachers begging for money all I want to hear! They
won’t get any of mine! I worked hard for it, and that
preacher sits around all day and just eats and sleeps.
Then he comes in the church, looks sad, tells all those
hard luck stories, and all he wants is my money.”
I remember one time in 1968, while I was on active
duty, stationed in Fort Dix, New Jersey, a preacher
went to our hometown to hold a series of meetings. My
wife went to every meeting. One night, after I had just
gotten off duty, I was sitting around with a bunch of
guys playing cards. My wife called me long distance,
and said, “Jerry, I just gave the most money in the
offering that I have ever given in my life!”
I thought, “Whoopie!”
She said, “I wrote the preacher a check for $150.”
Oh, that made me mad. I had to play cards two nights
in a row to win all that back! I had sold my favorite hot-
rod to give her money to live on while I was gone, and
she had taken $150 out of my hot-rod money to give to
that preacher. That made me hot! That was a long time
ago!
I now realize that the reason the Body of Christ has
suffered financially, is because of the lack of teaching
concerning the truth about financial prosperity.
The Message of Victory is the Message
for the Hour
The message of victory is the message that is going
to reach the multitudes in the last days. Where are the
74

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